New Figures Reveal 300 Terror Arrests In Last Year

News

6 December 2018

Figures reveal the use of police powers relating to terrorism has exceeded 300 arrests, with 17 attack plots foiled in the year ending September 2018.

There were 317 arrests for terrorism-related activity in the year ending 30 September 2018, a decrease of 31% compared with the 462 arrests in the previous year. The fall is partly due to a relatively large number of arrests in the previous reporting year in the wake of terrorist attacks in London and Manchester. Although the number of arrests has fallen, it is still relatively high when compared with other recent years.

There has been an increase in those suspected of terrorism related offences being taken into custody, with the figure rising to over 220 detainees.

16,919 physical examinations of suspects were carried out under Schedule 7 of TACT 2000 a decrease of 25% from the previous year (12,752), continuing the downward trend seen in recent years

The quarterly Home Office statistics, published today detail the use of police powers under the Terrorism Act 2000.

Senior National Coordinator for Counter Terrorism Policing, Deputy Assistant Commissioner Dean Haydon, called for continued vigilance over this busy Christmas season:

He said: “This is the fourth consecutive year where we’ve seen the number of counter-terrorism related arrests exceed 300 – a level that hadn’t been reached prior to that since we began to record this data in 2001. It reflects the fact that in recent times we have seen a genuine step-change in terrorist activity, but equally, that we are meeting this with increased activity from the police and security services in order to keep the public safe.

“Since March 2017, working with UK intelligence services, we’ve foiled a total of 17 attack plots. At any given time, we are also working on some 700 live CT investigations involving around 3,000 individuals and this record level of activity shows no sign of abating.”